Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb Release New Attacks Video

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) released a new video from its series "Shadows of the Swords." The 41-minute video is entitled "Lions of the Orient" and shows three new attacks carried out by the group against army and police personnel in Algeria.
The video included footage from a training camp, showing operatives undergoing firearm training and aiming their guns at posters of the Algerian President Bouteflika and U.S. President George Bush.
It also shows an attack on a National Guards' outpost in Taghrout in eastern Algeria. The group's leader was shown briefing his men and reviewing details of the operation over a sketched map of the area. Some night pictures of the assault on the outpost are then shown, with graphic images of the officers dead bodies. The booty display showed machine guns, ammunition, mobile phones and military IDs and uniforms. The group claims they killed five officers during the attack.
The second attack targeted a police convoy that was patrolling the city of Aftis on the eastern Algerian coast - an attack which left eight policemen dead, according to the group. The video shows 16 men - apparently coming from two different camps - preparing for the operation. It goes on to show two police vehicles being ambushed. The men who were inside came out running but were shot by the gunmen positioned in the mountains up above. Again, some graphic pictures of dead bodies, and the booty seized from the vehicle.
The third operation was also an attack on a police pick-up truck in the Setah area in eastern Algeria. The men sprayed the truck with bullets as it drove down a dirt road in the middle of the mountains. The driver was obviously hit and the vehicle veered off the road and into a ditch. Bodies of three men were pulled out of the vehicle which was subsequently set alight by the gunmen.
The date of the attacks was not given by the group, but according to press reports the first and second operations may have taken place around June 2008. The media reported only four casualties at the time however.
The video also included excerpts from an old video by al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. It then criticised what it said was a media bias against the Islamist militants, referring specifically to a report released by West Point 's CTC called the "Militant Ideology Atlas" which mentioned the importance of funding the media campaign against the militants to expose them before the Muslim public.